We are thinking of adding a Citrix test environment in testing our desktop application. Currently we are only using different virtualized Windows operating systems using VMWare Workstation.

I am not really familiar with a Citrix environment so I would like to know if XenClient is an effective way to jump-start our Citrix environment testing. I am also thinking of running XenClient on the Cloud. Has anyone encountered problems with this kind of setup for testing?

As I am not familiar with Citrix, I am also wondering what is the difference between using XenClient and XenDesktop. I have a desktop application that I need to test on different Windows environments and setups.

Welcome to SQA, Mela. I like the question, but any time I see "best" I have to be very skeptical: how would you define best for this scenario?
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corsiKa♦Jan 6 '14 at 15:30

Yes I see your point re 'best'. Will try to be more objective in my questions next time. I found an answer to my question which is to call Citrix and talk to them. Apparently, they have a test lab that we can use. Thanks corsika!
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MelaJan 7 '14 at 9:16

1 Answer
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I am a tester working in Citrix. We use XenServer (akin to VMware workstation) for our day-to-day testing. You can create or import VMware image into XenServer, create a snapshot before installing any desktop application on the vm images, roll-back when you are done with it.

I believe XenServer is open source. The free license will allow you manage the vms with limited access. If you can share what you try to achieve in details e.g., number of vms, how many testers will be using it. I might able to find out some information for you.

hi chuan thanks for the answer. we are supposed to test our desktop application in a citrix environment. test meaning do functional testing as well as test if our licensing works on citrix or not. our license is setup as one license should only be used in one machine. it should be able to determine if the client license was already used/installed in a particular machine.
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MelaJan 23 '14 at 9:14

hi mela, when you mentioned about test in Citrix environment, you are talking about XenApp or XenDesktop. Can you be more specific about the problem you are trying to solve/test? I am bit confused with your use case
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chuanJan 27 '14 at 22:50